A day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
-- NOT--
Lesson # 14115
Here it is Monday again and I am back at work early, I again had trouble sleeping last night, I woke up about 4:30 and was unable to get back to sleep. I made the mistake of taking a sleeping pill and then realized that I had to be up at six anyway and that it would take effect just as I should be getting up. At least now when I can't sleep I get up and try to get something constructive done. This time I got up and wrote a letter to a newborn for 2000. I have been thinking about what gifts I should get for newborns. I am tired of giving the usual gift of baby cloths when friends have children. I remembered what I liked that my parents had gotten when I was born. For some reason my parents kept a copy of the TV guide from the fall season of my birth and I will sometimes look through it to see what was on TV back in 1961 and think of what life must have been like for them then. So I have decided to save a copy of the actual TV guide for the week when a child is born and one from the fall season of that year, I also want to get a copy of either Newsweek or Time magazine from then. To complete the news and information to remember the birth year by I want to set aside a copy of the Sears cataloge from their birth year. If you have ever looked at an old copy of the cataloge from the time when you were born you will realize what a laugh it can be. I want to make a plaque containing differnt denominations of the money from the birth year also. This year will be especially apropriate because of all of the changes we see happening to the US currency. I think that a box with these things in it will be appreciated as the child grows. I wrote an Letter To A Newborn and want to place it in with the other things. I want the letter to be opened on the childs 21st birhtday. Read it and let me know what you think. If you have any Ideas on how to make it better let me know. The time that I was unable to sleep was well used, this is something that has been happening at least once a week for some time now, at least now I am not waisting the hours I spend awake.
David called last week to see if I wanted to get season ticket to the Kansas City Sympony. I enjoy the symphony but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go see it that often. He was able to get us tickets to seven shows at a great discount and I decided that it would be a great idea. I am sure that there will be at least a couple of shows that each of us will not want to see, we can take the tickets and give them to the other and each can take a different friend. So that should work out alright. I am going to look in to getting tickets to the theater or to the opera's 2000-20001 season , but I think we will be better off seeing a couple of shows from each. I have been wanting to see at least one artistic event a month since I came to KC and it looks as if it is finally going to happen this year. We may not hit exactly one per month but we will get fairly close. The availablility of the Arts is why I wanted to live in KC to begin.
I have been having a great couple of weeks at work lately. As I said in an entry a couple of weeks ago I went to Omaha N. for a conference on education and it went well. Since I got back I have been giving our mission a lot more thought. The work I have been doing both before and since the conference has come to the attention of the university president. He stopped by to talk with me about a week ago to say how much my work and dedication is appreciated, to ask me what my goals were and to tell me that he recognized that my talents are underutilized in my current possition and that he was ready to help me move my way over and up when ever I was ready.
He returned to my office a couple of days later to tell me that he and the administration realized that my pay, though inline with my job level and discripotion, didn't pay me anywhere what I was worth had decided to give me another raise over and above the annual raise I had recieved the week before. The raise was substantial. Needless to say I was quite happy and overwelmed I had not expected this and am quite grateful for it. It more than made my week.
